Exhibitions
Crafts Center exhibitions include creative works from students, local artists and crafts guild members.
Exhibitions are on display throughout the year at the Crafts Center’s R. A. Bryan Foundation, Inc. Gallery and in the Street Gallery Windows. The windows usually display instructor examples for upcoming classes, craft guild exhibitions and works by Crafts Center artists and craftspeople.
Gallery exhibitions are supported by NC State University Foundation.
Exhibitions are open for viewing during normal Crafts Center hours as listed on our Calendar page.
In the R. A. Bryan, Inc. Gallery
Fall 2022
Eric Serritella
through November 4: Exhibition of works in clay and glass
October 22, 2 – 4pm: Presentation and Demonstration (registration required)
Artist Statement
“Nature has always been at the core of my heart and my art. And when I am in nature–in solitude–I find grounding, focus and inspiration. It is the song within each subject that sparks me creatively. Sentient or otherwise, my interpretations are about capturing their spirits, their breaths, their soul-singings. To live amongst these muses–as I have–is to become them. Like a sibling or a roommate, a connection and intimacy is formed when there is no escape but to share the space. And to share spaces is to become bound with the flow of energies and vibrations.
To experience nature’s subjects in books or on the Internet is to experience them as nouns. To live amongst them is to experience them as verbs. My sculptures translate these actions into subconscious stories that are told by my hands. I create each sculpture as a conduit to emotion through inquiry, recognition and familiarity. They serve as arenas for connection, resonance and reverberation. It is from this perspective that I channel and share their private stories so their secluded voices are heard.
Through aging and decay my sculptures challenge the viewer with both the nature of the material and the messages within. I unearth how nature maintains its splendors with tenacity and triumphs of existence, despite human disregard. I appreciate how ceramic and glass mirror the environment’s fragility and durability—easily damaged if disrespected and yet invincible in its inherent beauty and longevity.
Each organic creation is filled with metaphor, both literal and implied. Anthropomorphic elements and vessel forms link humanity as timelessly inseparable from its interactions and relationships to its natural surroundings. In this regard I am often guided by Asian tea culture. My works shout out tea’s wabi sabi influences and are informed by the nature-inspired Chinese Yixing teapots of the 1600s.
Each sculpture fosters awareness to affect viewers’ behaviors toward the environment. Through this consciousness they acquire new appreciations and ways of seeing and can thus choose their actions for best sharing space.”
